"I'm a writer, but I'm standing here before you today, really, as a victim of crime," author Anna Funder told reporters at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday.
Funder is one of countless Australian artists whose work is training artificial intelligence models without permission, a practice known as scraping, or slurping.
"I feel like I've been building, slowly and painstakingly with a massive mortgage, a block of flats," she said, flanked by a gaggle of musicians, authors and industry figures in the nation's capital.
"Each book is a flat, and I rent it out, and the money that I get is royalties. These big tech bros have moved into my flats, kicked me out, and are charging rent for my work."
Big tech should ask artists' permission to scrape their work and pay them royalties under copyright law.
AI giants were denied an exemption to those laws in October, but artists are still seeing their work slurped.
"I've written 43 books, 67 books have been scraped without permission, that includes translations," children's author Andy Griffiths said on Wednesday.
"They are going for everything."
But taking big tech to court was "not the way to go", Funder said.
She cited a landmark $US1.5 billion settlement between artists and AI juggernaut Anthropic in September, which awarded Funder $US3000 as compensation for a litany of scraped works.
"(Anthropic) are not the good guys," she said.
Government should stand back from deal-making between tech companies and creative industries, but should also be proactive in fending off Silicon Valley's requests for copyright carve-outs, according to the artists.
"We shouldn't have to spend creators' monies ... to protect their rights here," music licensing chief executive Dean Ormston told reporters.
"Canberra Airport's never been so busy, (big tech lobbyists) flying out from the US," he said.
AI models are usually trained in the US, complicating any court battle Australian artists might wish to mount.
"You actually have to bring infringement cases in the United States, and that is exactly what is happening," Australian recording industry chief executive Annabelle Herd told reporters.
The issue needed to be settled at the negotiating table, rather than a courtroom, the artists said, adding they were open for business and not outright opposed to AI.
Worldwide, almost 300 commercial AI licensing deals have been inked with content companies such as Conde Nast and Warner Music.
About 270 court cases are under way against AI firms in various jurisdictions, but there are no copyright infringement cases against AI companies recorded in Australian courts.
Debate on the issue reignited in June after independent senator David Pocock aired claims in parliament that Labor is considering a fresh set of carve-outs for big tech companies.
The government labelled the claims as reckless speculation.
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